There were never such devoted sisters...

Please tell me you got the title of this post. If not, go watch White Christmas. You must! Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, Crosby! Yes, I know it's only October but promise me you'll watch it if you never have. I even own it! It is seriously up there as a favorite movie. I'm a sucker for a musical. 
Whoa, sorry there. Tangent. Back to the main focus of this post :-) 

There is something so special about the bond between sisters... at least that's what I've been told :-) I love my brother but I always wanted a sister, too and I remember asking my mom if I could have a sister when I was younger. I vaguely remember her laughing... Anyway, all of this rambling brings me to my point. This dynamic sister duo is Savannah and Serenity.

I've known Savannah and Serenity for a couple years now. I met them when they started attending youth group and they have been so fun to get to know!! These two sisters let me pick them up before youth group early one night and we went to town. Literally. We wandered around the downtown area and were able to capture some great shots!


Savannah is the older of the two sisters. She is such a sweet girl! Soft and serene is how I would describe her. She didn't give me many full blown smiles but when she does, wow! Savannah is a natural beauty and she shines from the inside out.

Serenity is one of the sweetest girls I've ever met. She is the younger sister of Savannah and has the greatest giggle! Her eyes are so soulful and can go from thoughtful to mischievous in a flash. 

Oh those eyes!

They were so much fun!

Thanks girls for allowing me to take your photographs! I may need to ask my mom again about a sister...

Fireplace Wall Project

The hubster and I just purchased our first home and we are in the throws of "making it our own". We've painted- still not quite done. That darn master bedroom is still laughing at me. A couple weeks ago the hubster was put to task on a honey-do list because I had a vision. A vision that had to happen. Soon. My obsession, er, inspiration came from this blog post by This Nest is Blessed.  So my sweet, trusting, and handy hubster manned up to help make my vision come to life! Gosh I love him :-)

 Actually, it was a really simple project- and really affordable! This project took about a day and a half- an evening to stain wood and an afternoon to mount the wood on the wall. After calculating what the damage would be, not only time-wise but cost, this project was a no brainer! Materials totaled to about $40 and it looks like a million dollar wall! Well, maybe not million, but a couple hundred at least. I wanted something special. Something custom. Enter the hubster!

My hubster, Matt. He's swell :-)

We started by purchasing the wood from Lowe's. It was less than $11. Um, can you say cheap?! Each package had 6 pieces of 8 ft. pine planks and for our surface, two packages were plenty. 

Matt started by cutting the pieces down to the right size- for us it was a little over 7 ft. 

After cutting the planks down to size, we used two different Minwax stains, espresso & grey. I wanted a bit of aged look to the boards and the combo of these two stains did the trick!

Now for the fun part! Using finishing nails so the heads wouldn't be seen, we started tacking them to the wall. The boards are super light so we weren't too concerned with finding the studs but if you are concerned, you can find studs to nail into.

 

As you can see, the recessed cable and power box had to be worked around. Since we were going to put the TV on the wall we didn't worry about bringing the wood right up to the edge. If we hadn't made plans for the TV we could have notched out the wood make it flush against the edge but this saved us time!

By the time we got to the bottom there was about an inch left of the wall to cover. We had one piece of wood left but because we measured wrong on a previous plank (oops!) we cut it in half and pieced three strips together to get a perfect fit. The planks were thin enough that Matt was able to cut it down to size with a straight edge and a utility knife. We puzzled it all together quite nicely and since it's at the bottom, no one will ever notice. :-) 

 

And now the finished wall...

Tada! Gorgeous! And the wall ain't bad either ;-)

I'm in love!

Now on to the the TV mounting... AKA the real reason Matt was so keen on re-doing the wall. Yes, the truth comes out. His doubt about the project was greatly lessened by the promise of a new TV. Boys and their toys! 

A little measuring here and there, find those studs, and voilà!

I love the way this turned out! The wood is just aged enough to warm up the room.

Custom wall? CHECK! 

A few fall decorations and it's done! 

 Now to tackle that master bedroom...

Pieces of My Heart

If we are friends on Facebook, you know this to be a fact- I love my nephews. This is evident by the millions of photos I post of them. Millions. Just the thought of my three nephews makes me smile! 

Andrew is Matt's brother's son. I am so lucky that I married into this family. I gained two wonderful in-laws,  another brother, two sisters and a nephew- not to mention my crazy awesome hubster :-) Andrew is our oldest nephew and he is brilliant. No lie. He is sooo smart! And he loves his popsicles! The don't live in town so the times we see them are precious and unfortunately few and far between.

Isaac is nephew numero dos. He is six going on seven (this coming December!) Goofy to his bones and the most tenderhearted fella I've ever known. He loves animals, drawing, and of course ninja moves.

Noah, or Noah-bug as I call him is the epitome of ornery. You wouldn't know it by looking at him- I mean look at those eyes!

Take your eyes off him for one second though and who knows what new adventure has begun! At this very moment I bet he's giving his mom and dad a run for their money! Spider-Man, Legos, and whatever his big brother is into is exactly what makes this little man tick.

Yep. These three are little pieces of my heart that make me smile, laugh and are the recipients of many future hugs!

True Beauty Comes From Within

I was so honored to be asked to take some photos of this beautiful girl! Corinne was looking for head shots and I was looking for experience. And how in the world was I going to pass up taking photos of this amazing girl?

These pictures only capture one part of her beauty- she is beautiful from the inside out! God has great things in store for this young lady.

We had so much fun and the day was perfect with the sun peaking out from behind clouds.

What's a photo shoot without a mother-daughter shot?

Corinne, you are such an amazing young woman. I can't wait to see how your future unfolds.

Happy Girls are the Prettiest

Leyna

This girl. Oh this girl! I've known her for about 2 years now (Wow! How did that go by so fast?!?) and I can't even fathom my life without her in it. Her smile, sass, wit, her beauty- inside and out- and how can I not mention her clumsiness? Confession... we share that last trait. 

All of those traits and so many more made my first photo shoot so much fun! Not only was I able to practice my photo skills with Leyna, but she brought her sweet boyfriend, Shilo, along for the ride. What a great sport! Note the adorable couple. What height difference?

A week before setting up her shoot I was on my way to Wichita and I spotted a gorgeous sunflower field off the highway. BINGO! Beautiful couple, beautiful background, amateur photographer. What isn't to love about this combo?

Oh those eyes!

Oh my goodness. Cuteness. Overload.

 

Thank you Leyna & Shilo for being my first photo shoot guinea pigs!